What you need to know about townhouses

Townhouses are becoming an increasingly popular type of housing in Ukraine. Complexes of low-rise houses are well represented in the suburbs of Kiev, but you can also see them near other cities: Lviv, Kamyanets-Podolsky, Odessa, etc. Before you decide to buy a townhouse for personal or investment use, find out everything you need to know about this property, including its advantages and disadvantages.

What is a townhouse

A townhouse is a two- or three-story comfortable house joined by side walls with other similar houses. Each dwelling has a separate entrance, a small plot of land in front of the building, and sometimes a garage or parking lot. A townhouse can be called something in between an apartment and a cottage.

Most often the houses are built in a single row and are designed in the same architectural style. Although sections can be designed differently, so several types of townhouses can be distinguished:

• Linehouse. These townhouses have a common linear layout and are built in a straight or broken line. There can be between 5 and 10 houses in a row, and each section has two exits: to the street and to the backyard. The interior layout is most often rectangular. The outermost sections usually sell more expensive and are in good demand, since there are neighbors not on two sides, but only on one side.
• Quadrohouse. This type of townhouse is a building comprising 4 multilevel apartments. Here, the sections are placed in the corners of the building, with the living rooms closer to the outer walls and the non-residential rooms closer to the neighboring walls. The quad house has a mirrored layout and often has a basement or attic.
• Duplex (twinhouse). A townhouse in the form of a duplex is considered more comfortable than a multifamily linear or quadruplex, since it is essentially a separate house designed for only two families. Such a building is built with a linear floor plan and has two exits for each townhouse. The layout of one apartment also mirrors the other. Duplex - a good solution for those who want to live close to their parents, but on a separate living space.

What type of townhouse to choose depends on the preferences and needs of the buyer. If there is a financial opportunity and you want privacy, a duplex is a great option. For those who want to expand their social circle at the expense of neighbors or have a small budget, a good solution would be a quadrangle or a linehouse.

How a townhouse differs from a house/cottage

One of the main differences between a townhouse and a house is the more affordable cost. A townhouse will cost less than a house or cottage by about 20%. If we talk about comparing the cost of a townhouse with apartments, then a townhouse will cost 20-25% more.

Price is not the only difference between a townhouse and a cottage. The former differs from the latter in that they have a common wall between neighbors, whereas a cottage is a detached house, often with a fenced-in lot.

How else a townhouse differs from a house or cottage:

• Townhouse owners have lower maintenance costs due to the smaller footprint and adjacent utilities;
• the plot of land next to the house is noticeably smaller than that of individual mansions;
• The privacy in townhouses is also at a lower level than in a cottage, since strangers live on one or both sides;
• Maintenance of a private home is the full responsibility of the owner, while in townhouses, most often the heating, water and other problematic situations are handled by the service company.

Whether a townhouse is better than a cottage, each family decides for itself individually. But if you want to live closer to nature, not far from the city, and at the same time in comfortable conditions surrounded by other people, a townhouse may well be a good solution.

What are the advantages of townhouses

Like any other real estate, townhouses also have their pros and cons. Before investing financially in such a project, it is worth weighing the pros and cons of buying.

So, what are the advantages of townhouses:

• favorable cost. Buying a section in a linehouse is about 20% cheaper than buying a separate cottage, as mentioned above;
• Backyard. Most townhouses have a small fenced backyard where you can put a sandpit with swings for children or a barbecue area;
• a parking space for your car or a garage. Apartment owners have to constantly look for a place to park their car if the complex does not have its own parking lot. In a townhouse there is no such problem, because there is a separate parking space or a built-in garage;
• convenient layout. You can buy a townhouse with an area ranging from 70 to 300 square meters, and in most projects there is a free layout, which allows you to arrange your home the way that suits a particular family;
• a small number of neighbors. A large number of people live in high-rise buildings, while in a townhouse neighbors will only be on one or two sides, depending on the type of facility, so privacy in the latter case is at a higher level;
• Proximity to the city. More often than not, townhouses are built in the suburbs and, if necessary, you can get to the city fairly quickly by car or public transport, and it's always quiet and peaceful around;
• environmental friendliness. Since townhouses are built mostly outside the city, such real estate is perfect for families with children, because you can breathe the fresh air, walk in nature away from noisy highways.

Each individual townhouse complex may have additional benefits, so specific projects should be considered. Townhouses can also have 24-hour security and video surveillance, their own infrastructure, a maintenance company that handles all issues, etc.

What are the disadvantages of townhouses

Despite their attractiveness, townhouses do have disadvantages. To avoid unpleasant surprises after the purchase, the disadvantages of townhouses should know even before the selection of objects and, even more so, the conclusion of the sale.

What are the disadvantages of townhouses:

• the presence of neighbors. There are considerably fewer of them than in an apartment building, but they are still there, and they are behind a wall, not behind a fence, as in the case of a separate cottage, where you can make noise and not worry about other people;
• location. The fact that a townhouse is located outside the city may not suit everyone. If you work in the city, you do not have your own car, or the road to the house is on a busy and often busy highway, it is worth thinking carefully about the purchase and calculate how much time it will take to travel;
• contents. Compared to an apartment, a townhouse's utility bill will be higher, as it often has more space;
• infrastructure. Not all townhouse complexes have their own infrastructure or are located near a community with a school, kindergarten and stores. In this case, you will have to go to the city for groceries and take your children to school by car or by public transport.

Do not focus only on the general disadvantages from the list above. In a separate project, the developer can take care to minimize the disadvantages: choose a convenient location, build duplexes and quadruplexes with a minimum number of neighbors, arrange their own infrastructure, etc. But it is important to understand that the less disadvantages, the more attractive the property and, accordingly, the higher its value.

Why a townhouse is cheaper than a house

A townhouse costs less than a separate economy-segment cottage by about 20%, although it all depends on which specific properties are compared. Many people wonder why the prices for townhouses are more attractive than for mansions.

Here are a few factors why townhouses sell cheaper than cottages or houses of economy and comfort class:

• the builder can save on building materials at the expense of common walls;
• vertical layout allows you to place such a house on a minimum amount of land;
• The connection of utilities requires less cost, since they are supplied to several sections at once;
• It is not necessary to make individual designs as in the case of individual mansions, since townhouses are executed according to one project.

All of this reduces the builder's costs, and therefore reduces the cost of the property. As a result, the construction company can set attractive rates for square meters in townhouses.

What townhouses are built of

Townhouses in Kiev and other cities of Ukraine are built from different materials. The most common material for the construction of this type of housing is aerocrete (aerated concrete). About half of the townhouses in the capital are built from this material.

Aerated concrete blocks are an environmentally friendly building material made of cellular concrete. There are several reasons why this material is actively used by builders. Gas concrete blocks are moisture-, fire- and frost-resistant. Due to the crystalline structure of the material, gas blocks have low weight, and this reduces the cost of transportation. The service life exceeds 50 years.

Many townhouses in Kiev and not only are also built from brick. The advantages of brick have long been appreciated by both developers and property owners. This material guarantees a long life, it is reliable, durable and beautiful. Brick is distinguished by its high fire protection properties.

Another popular material for the construction of townhouses is ceramic block. This material combines the best properties of brick and aerated concrete. Among the advantages of ceramic blocks is the high speed of masonry due to the fact that the material exceeds the size of a standard brick by about 2 times. Also, ceramic blocks give good heat and sound insulation. It is an environmentally friendly and relatively inexpensive material.

In the suburbs of Kiev you can also find such interesting projects as townhouses made of wood. Log houses with 2-3 floors are eco-friendly, look attractive and provide comfortable living conditions.

Townhouses are insulated with different materials: polystyrene foam, basalt or mineral wool. There are also objects without insulation, but this is rare.

Who is suitable for townhouses

Complexes with townhouses are built mostly outside the city. This format of suburban construction of 2-3 story houses is considered optimal, as it allows residents to get to work in the city relatively quickly and simultaneously live in nature and have their own small plot of land next to the house. This housing option will suit many potential buyers of suburban real estate.

Who should consider buying a townhouse to live in:

• For city dwellers who have outgrown the possibilities of an ordinary apartment, but do not want to be completely isolated in a separate cottage;
• Those who want to own their own house, but do not yet have enough financial savings - for them a townhouse will be a good opportunity to test how to live at a distance from the city center and with as few neighbors as possible;
• those who plan to have a child in the near future and want to expand the living space, but are not yet ready to get a separate house;
• Large families with several children, for whom the cottage is still an expensive purchase, and the townhouse will be the best solution in terms of price and level of comfort;
• For those who want to live in a separate house, but close to parents or friends - you can buy separate townhouses in the same complex;
• Those who do not want to burden themselves with the maintenance of a private house, and the apartment no longer suits the level of comfort of living.

A townhouse is a good compromise between an apartment and a house. The main thing is to choose a good object and, if possible, buy housing at the stage of construction from a reliable developer. Then you can save a lot of money and still be able to have a comfortable multilevel property with your own small plot of land. Realtors of Mayak real estate agency know what objects are safe to invest in and will help you choose the best options for townhouses to suit your needs.